The provision of healthcare services in the American society varies from state to state as show in the case of California State. This further determines and creates variations on state, federal, and county public healthcare centers. This study provides a succinct and comprehensive comparison that exists in the three levels of healthcare providers concerning public and community health.
Federal, State, County Public Health Resources
Comparison Paper: Federal, State, and County Public Health Resources
Comparison Paper: Federal, State, County Public Health Resources
Comparison Paper Federal, State, County Public Health Resources
In most cases, public health serves everyone from everywhere. They work on things that affect everyone at large; things such as bird flu. Community health deals with health care professionals like nurses and doctors and is concerned with the needs of a certain community. In essence, they do not have any plan for the big picture. They do a resounding job because it is their area of specialization (Braun & Margolis, 2011). Public health deals with the health care of the whole state while community health is mostly concerned with the health professionals that are within a society. Public health endears to protect of everyone: community health protects only those who are within an identified society. In public health, health care is offered free to everyone but community health is centered on keeping food, supply, water and the environment in general, healthy for the society. Public health concentrates on health care for individuals but community health focuses on the statistics of general health in California and Sacramento County (Health, 2010).
Public health is mostly interested in the healthcare of citizens. Practitioners and researchers in public health must balance the rights and needs of the population against community interests. The practice of public health has focused on developing interventions, which have impacts on the future and current generations. On the contrary, community health focuses on individuals' health. Community health practitioners are committed to respecting the autonomy of individuals and serve the interests of individual patients. They are dedicated to advocating for families and individual patients (Health, 2010). The practice of public health emphasizes on the prevention of diseases and injury while promoting health in the community. Public health practice recognizes that the health of the society and individuals are interdependent. However, sometimes the community's needs may outweigh patients' rights. On the other hand, community health emphasizes on treatment and diagnosis of individual patients and their families. Community health practitioners acknowledge that their social obligations that the health of patients is paramount (Health, 2010).
Researchers in public health sector are dedicated to finding new public health endeavors that affect the health status of community members. This is achieved through developing and implementing intervention initiatives targeting individual behaviors and lifestyles, provision and access of medical care, the physical environment as well as social determinants regarding health (Braun & Margolis, 2011). The ethical code of public health originates from bioethics and continues to expand into a system reflecting the beliefs and values of the industry. Because emphasizes on the healthcare of communities, social justice and communitarianism constantly influence public health practice. Community health practice follows the guidelines provided by medical ethics. This includes principles that govern the privacy and autonomy of patients and their rights to quality healthcare services. Recently, the impacts of guidelines governing social justice have expanded in community health care. Areas of great interest consider improvements in access to healthcare and elimination of discrimination in the field (Health, 2010).
Public health practice depends on and brings different disciplines together. According to the medical industry, specialization under public health originated from the desire to have experts in the field of health analysis, settings, problems, and skills such as policy development, study design, and evaluation. Considering community health practice, specialization is developed out of pathophysiology or etiology, technical and organ skills as well as specified groups of patients (Health, 2010). Nurses discharging their duties in community health provide healthcare services to aggregate populations in multiple settings. For instance, they move to different locations as they deliver care to populations. Consequently, public health nurses are stationary in correctional facilities, business environments, and neighborhood schools. They serve groups of individuals within their setting who are in need of potential healthcare or health interventions. Without considering setting or location, nurses in community health offer comprehensive health programs for patients, communities, groups, and families. While operating in different settings, these nurses focus on the provision of services that emphasize dignity, respect, compassion and caring (Health, 2010).
Previously, nurses in public health acknowledged the importance of community-based programs such that individual patients who were suffering from health risks were linked to community health. Public health has fostered many reforms in public health policy. Public health continues to make significant contributions to the health of community members. The practice of public health entails provision of protection and provision of healthcare to patients. Unlike community health, which focuses on individuals within a specified area, the practice focuses on the general population. This focus intends to identify individual patients who have health complications but have not requested for care: this puts the entire community at risk (Braun & Margolis, 2011).
On the contrary, community health nurses are dynamic and require outstanding skills and knowledge in evaluating, intervening, and assessing nursing actions. In community health, nurses operate as care managers navigating within the market of healthcare and their roles have been changed by the new Medicare system. Nurses in public health are facing challenges associated with the provision of care services in an environment constrained by budgetary issues. Advancements in Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements for care by public health nurses necessitate management and documentation of skills is fundamental. Currently, some public health care providers are serving the purpose of both community health care and public health care. This calls for nurses to update their skills and knowledge required in community health care (Health, 2010).
Public health practice involves identifying and assessing populations who are facing risks associated with injury, poor recovery, threat of diseases and risks of diseases. They focus on populations such as aging individuals whose numbers are on the increase, adults and children with chronic diseases and disabilities, impoverished children and women, homeless persons and families affected by violence and substance abuse as well as individuals with chronic communicable illness. Nurses in public health work in order to make sure that services are accessible and available to the public. They work as care managers and health educators. They work through with individuals, employers, families, community leaders and interest groups. They are involved in political and social actions with an aim of improving availability and accessibility of healthcare (Braun & Margolis, 2011).
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